Thoughts to Live by
by Chexusai
Summary: AU/: Truth is suggestive, Acceptance is choice. A story of life; a touch of Peace, the Immortality of Time, and the Unashamed, natural Human need for Love. A coalescence of humanity's nature, as seen through Naruto.
1. Act 1: Experience

-o-

Analogies, it is true, decide nothing, but they can make one feel more at home.

**Sigmund Freud**

-o-

_Year: ? (Pre-Cataclysm)_

Applause and excited chatter brimmed throughout the auditorium. Elites of the Scientific field, authorities of the military world, geniuses and madmen alike stood to attendance, awaiting to what is supposed to be the Century, no, the Millenium's greatest breakthrough.

The scientific world of a hundred years ago bragged Internet 3.0, information at its fastest, most available and most potent form; the extreme of its potential being the lag-free streaming of information about the world's complete history, images and video alike, texts mandatory, absolutely price-free and, when compared to the best of ancient 21st century internet connections, measure to speeds of over nine-thousand times over… all in the common citizen's bargain cellphone.

Forty years ago gave rise to the end of the all too common nuisance to the working man; traffic, and by solution meant anti-gravity vehicles, utilizing the Earth and freeing itself of its dependence on dirty fuels and fulfilling a small part of man's dream to touch the skies in their man-made joyrides… which was eventually fulfilled only five years after with the advent of personnel anti-gravity footwear.

But forgetting old fathers' old reminisces, the same intensity of man's creativity reaching an epiphany, the people of yore had felt those long forgotten times ago had given way for itself at the meet at present; all eyes stayed on the meek podium in front of them, a short, rotund fellow in formalwear making his way to the stand with a smile one could mistake for pride swollen to self-righteous arrogance… or perhaps madness taking a masquerade in the guise of science and so-called ingenuity. There didn't seem to be much of a difference.

"Friends," The man gestured. "Colleagues, my brethren and loved ones, I welcome you all to, dare I say this," He chuckled. "Welcome to Evolution!"

Unsurprisingly, murmurs and even some protests of idiosyncrasy and blasphemy, religion-wise and some, arose through the crowd. The man on stage smiled even wider.

"Perhaps words will not suffice as to what I will present to you today but rest assured what you will see today, is not an illusion of smoke and mirrors. Witness… Pyrokinesis!"

The man reached out and his fingers fanned open. Flames burst out from flesh, racing out and creating a massive fireball over the heads of gasping audience members. As the flames receded, and disappearing from the now-calm, but wary attendees of the scientific gathering, the man of power stepped to the open stage, lofty and brimming with pride, hand free of burns and dainty as it was before the 'demonstration'.

"My friends… a time long before ours, our ancestors harnessed the blessings of nature to live out their lives, struggling in their survival through obsolete, primitive tools and even mutilating their bodies to disgusting husks with machine-driven garbage." He shook his head.

"It was… sad. That those who created the most powerful of powers, the greatest of technologies; the greatest of any race on Earth would be so," He shook his head.

"Fragile." The murmurs became louder. Some were shaking their heads. In agreement or otherwise, none could say.

"Minutes ago, I stood as a mere mortal to all you," The man opened his arms to an embrace. The stretching of the formal suit he wore seemed to emanate through the silence of the crowd.

"My friends, the time for change is now." Gasps and breaths of awe came from the people bearing witness to the surreality before them. The clothes on the person on stage, burning away to cinders; his feet beginning to lose their touch on the ground, and the numerous doodads onstage, podium, chairs, tables, all floating around proximity, seemingly to the command of the less-clothed one.

"By these hands, these human hands!" He shoved his hands in front of him, and further put his emphasis forward. "I alone, created Project: CHAKRA. Meta-Electric, Omni-potential Bio-Energy; an energy symbiote of nanomachines and genetically mutated, why I would say _powered-up_ mitochondrion cells! Capable of bending the forces of nature to its whim, by command of the human host!" The furniture spun wildly around the naked man. The crowd seemed to fall to his unreal trance of supernatural demonstration; seemingly forgetting the nigh horrific display of spontaneous combustion and the defying of gravity's laws.

"Join me in this endeavor, in this Odyssey, in this Alpha and Omega, in a cornerstone of Mankind's History!" He laughed and clenching his fist, stretching out in address to the audience.

"Today I was a Man; tomorrow, I shall become … a god!"

-o-

_And so, Project: CHAKRA took the world by storm._

_Not one person had been left the same; it only took years before the scientific miracle brought by man's ingenuity, had been turned into a worldwide conglomerate toy, sold to the highest bidder to businessmen seeking to ascend to heights Nature had not intended man to reach._

_A certain man, whose name had been long forgotten, had ambitions as fiery as the scientist who created Project: CHAKRA; to reach Godhood, to become one only what dreams could dictate. One reason recorded to have come from him before all contact with the man was lost, was to 'break free'; to release himself and embrace the 'loneliness born within all of us'. Nobody had heard from him afterwards, although bank records and recorded stock activity showed that he had sold large quantities of his property, earning net sums enough to buy a municipal city, a few years after the demonstration of Project: CHAKRA. One can state safely, the money itself was never heard of, either again._

_But the children of a time, only so coming forth, will know one a label that they will forever associate with whom, and forever curse that bloodline; and in the same, they will forever revere him as a revolutionary, and to some, even a martyr._

_Uchiha._

-o-

_Year: 467 AFW (After First Shinobi War)- 18 years after the Kyuubi Incident_

Uzumaki Naruto sighed; a deep sigh, tired and stifled. Perhaps it was the cold air of the Hidden Leaf's December time in the midst of a dilapidated field, far flung from the city limits, or perhaps the notion of perpetual unease that all will not go well after this confrontation, that someone, anyone from anything he knew, would wind up dead the time the sun would set after today.

It all seemed… surreal. There were times he could not, or for the lack of a better word, would not believe the conclusion of his life's greatest story… would end up a sad tragedy. He did not want to accept it no, no. He felt a deepening, sick twist in his stomach, as he stood across an obsidian-haired youth, no fewer paces far from him, staring at his dark, bloody eyes, the Sharingan; and seeing only hatred, seeing anger, spite, brooding vengeance… and loneliness.

He sighed again. Hoarsely.

"_I made a lot of mistakes in my past, and believe you me I made the greatest one when I focused so much in giving him the power he had now. It was so shameful that I thought I had knew everything from learning so much in the past, being called the genius and the know it all. I was wrong… I was a fool, to think that I could escape my own past by trying to bring it back to the present. What Sarutobi-sama had done with Orochimaru was wrong… What I did was wrong."_

That was what his teacher, Hatake Kakashi told him a few days ago.

It was the Fourth Shinobi War, and a decisive battle loomed about for all of the allied countries fighting back against the threat of annihilation, from one common enemy.

The ancient, surviving evil of a forgotten past; Uchiha Madara.

Supplies ran low and morale was on the brink of exhaustion; allies, friends and loved ones died, fighting to protect what they believed, was the greater good. For Honor, for Love, and for the Future. However, to Madara it all seemed to be a game to him. He was the Rook, the Bishop, the Queen and the Knight; Uchiha Sasuke was the King. And here Naruto stood, facing him under the dark and cloudy Fire Country-fall cold.

"Naruto."

The young man in question quietly perked in attention. To a bystander, there would not have been a noticeable twinge on the blonde ninja in question. To Naruto, the cold, muttered address of his 'friend', rang throughout his whole body like an echo. His blood ran cold, and his fingers seemed to have gripped themselves to a tight ball.

But that didn't mean he was afraid.

"Remember what you said two years ago," Sasuke intoned quietly.

"That you and I understood each other, that our powers had given both of us insight to one another…?" He referred to the time after Sasuke's resounding victory over Danzou. When in his madness, Sasuke betrayed so many, the Leaf, the ever-faithful and heartbroken Karin, all for the satiation of the lust for his revenge. It seemed fitting that they met then, Fate seemingly guiding them to challenge each other to fulfill perhaps, retribution to be paid with blood; or dark vengeance that simply deserved to come at hand.

When they met, matched with the best that they could muster; a Chidori of lightning near supernatural in power, and a Rasengen of pure destructive potential, surpassing everything that came before it, both youths indeed exchanged essence beyond essence; seeing beyond what sight could not see, and what normal emotion could not comprehend. The two, had literally become one, and seen the world, reality itself, through each others' eyes.

Naruto had indeed remembered.

Sasuke closed his eyes. "People…them and their petty hatred. It's sickening, you know?"

The only reply that came from Naruto, was a confused, and sad look of pity.

"My family died, by my brother's hand. Itachi did it out of duty for the Hidden Leaf. The Fourth Hokage did what he had to do when he sealed the Kyuubi into you. He did that for patriotism, and love for the Hidden Leaf. Even you; you've sacrificed so much, been hurt more than anyone could possibly imagine, and its _all for the_ _Hidden Leaf._" Sasuke pressed emphasis on his last statement. He opened his eyes, and Naruto saw Sharingan, swirling their commas slowly.

"Just around your little village_,_ I did reconnaissance and information gathering on a nearby city. Food ran low and government provided rations were being fought over for by civilians and ninja like dogs to bone and meat." He muttered quietly.

"There was this one old woman who offered to give part of the rations she found to this guy who'd been scavenging around for food. The guy didn't have much luck and he saw the old lady had a lot of the rations on her. Do you know what he did…?" His eyes then began seething hate.

"The guy, _beat _her up; she offered to give _her _hard earned food to this… _trash _of a human being_, _and how did he repay her? He gathered his friends, and they _**killed**_ her. They killed an old, _defenseless _woman with their bare hands, in cold blood; just to take what was rightfully hers!" Naruto flinched.

"It didn't happen there alone. Stone Country, people raped _children _and _teenagers, _under the pretense they were ninja and they were going to guide them to safe houses,"

"Wind Country! Rogue ninja turned what they learned from fighting, techniques that were so-called, used to protect people, to rob, cheat and steal from the people they were charged in their mission! They became thugs with jutsu, and nobody was left alive enough for them to tell what happened, and nobody knew any better."

"In Hidden Mist! One ninja, a Chuunin just fresh out of being Genin, killed three civilians just for their wallets! The guy became missing nin and he was able to escape all the way to _your _Leaf Village, just because Mist didn't have enough manpower to take on something they said, was something they couldn't do because of _limited resources_,"

"But you know what was the clincher in this?" Sasuke snarled. "There was absolutely, no infighting around those areas. There were no Akatsuki there, none of Orochimaru's freaks and disasters, nothing! The people who did those were civilians and ninja who were made as guards to _protect_ the people when their elite were off fighting the war. The places they defiled were _peaceful,_ and just because the law became lighter, those happened... loss of order; descent to chaos."

"Even before this war, even before you and I ever became like this, I kept on hearing the same thing, over and over in the news, from word of mouth, everywhere… Murder, Death, Kill. And for what…? Wallets? Flesh Pleasure? _Money…?_"

"Why… who, _what_ do you fight for? Peace? Honor, to be Hokage? And for what, _these _people? Those shallow, backstabbing mincing sons of bitches, those who hide behind others just to justify something against something they'd get blamed for?" The Sharingan began swirling faster and faster, seemingly glowing red at each of Sasuke's words.

"I hated it. The Leaf murdered my brother because they were too scared to have a rebellion under their hands. They used an Uchiha to murder a whole clan, whole _families_, just so they'd save face to keep up their business of blood, just so they can keep on saying to themselves that, 'it's what's best for the village', 'it's because it is necessary, and we don't have a choice', bullshit…!" Sasuke spat.

"Tell me, I saw it inside of you. You said you'd clear this, 'Cycle of Hatred', this Cycle of _Madness_, you made a promise to Pein; then humor me, how will you do it? How will you change the world, how can you even change these senseless, selfish ideologies of those who can't even do any noble deed for once in their life, if you can't even convince _me _to change to _**your**_ idea of doing things, huh?" The crimson glow emanating from the Sharingan, radiated the spite, the hate and the fire brewing inside Sasuke. Naruto, for one, remained vigilantly serene. Or perhaps, inwardly defeated.

Sasuke scoffed. "This world is… was never worth saving. It had nothing special to give, no good to ever touch the lives of others; nothing to ever heal anyone of the sadness in them. I don't get what you see in doing what you do." Sasuke shook his head.

"Where was the justice when _you _were blamed for the deaths caused by the Kyuubi? Where was justice when so many ninja, Leaf, Cloud, Sand, everyone of our kind, fought in proxy wars just to eke out a living, bleeding, dying for corporate daimyo and corrupt rich people? Why is it that you can't become anything other than someone else's tool in this world," Sasuke held his hand up to his face.

"Why… why is it that even as ninja, we can't even do anything to change Fate, that even with so much that we can do, so much we can _become_, we still get bound to the senseless rules of the masses, that we can't erase corruption, hatred, and loneliness from this world…?"

Sasuke faced Naruto, Sharingan morphing into the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, the inheritance of the Legendary Uchiha Itachi to his beloved brother. The dark, boiling chakra of Susanoo began to enrapture Sasuke in a burning, skeletal armor, and the avatar of Susanoo emerging in magnificent horror behind him.

"You tell me something I don't know Naruto, and then you can say that you'll become the greatest Hokage that would've ever lived." The Chidori materialized both on Sasuke's hands, so black, so unholy; it burned the ground in their wake, plaguing the soil seemingly into never bearing life again.

"Don't hold back on me. Prove to me you're willing to change this world; show everyone, Uzumaki Naruto, that you stay true to your word! Fight me and prepare for glory… or get out of my way, and everyone you ever know will burn; everyone you will ever love in this life will die by _my hand!"_

"Bring me down, and give me the peace you've dreamed for so long…" Sasuke ordered coldly. His stance slid down, ready to strike any of his two Chidori, his eyes crimson with the Sharingan and the aura of destruction swirling like a maelstrom around him.

Naruto bowed his head, and closed his eyes. It happened suddenly,

One by one, a large tendril of bubbling, burning red chakra emerged behind Naruto. One became two, two multiplied to four, and all Nine tails of the Kyuubi no Youko materialized into existence. The once brilliant, and gentle cerulean of Naruto's eyes became a sharp, baneful red; brighter, more fiery than the Sharingan had possessed, his whole body burned, and the blood streaming from his pores swirled to an aura of malevolence, in contrast to the cold darkness engulfing Sasuke.

A tear slid down Uzumaki Naruto's whiskered cheek, and immediately burned away in the awesome wroth of the Nine-Tails' chakra. It wasn't the anger in Sasuke's voice, nor the fear of dying, nor was it the horrors he had seen through his eyes. It wasn't even the thought of his loved ones dying.

It was Sasuke's conviction to the truth.

And by their unison on that day two years ago, Chidori and Rasengan brought them to an understanding to each others' thoughts, dreams, that Naruto saw it. He finally understood the great Pain that Nagato and Sasuke truly felt. He understood, felt the loneliness they suffered; that nobody seemed to reach out and liberate them to an understanding with themselves, and they felt so alone… for so long.

"**Sasuke…**" Kyuubi-Naruto whispered. He paced forward, nine tails of hatred incarnated swinging behind him as a Fury Rasengan boiled and roared into his hand.

"**You're wrong." **

Both of the minions of destruction charged at each other, and clashed their weapons; the Dark Chidori, cold, dark bitterness screaming at every ear-gnashing chirp by the thousands of souls lost to the hand it engulfed, against the Fury Rasengan, broiling in the blood of its host and emanating the hatred no human being can comprehend, something signature only to the Kyuubi-no-Youko.

And then, as quick as the battle started, all turned white.

-o-

_Year: ?_,_ (Pre-Cataclysm, many, many years after Project: CHAKRA)_

"How goes it?"

Summa Cum-Laude of her class, professor of one of the most prestigious Colleges ever to have graced the Earth, and the youngest Head Researcher in their department's history at the tender age of twenty-four and being hailed by the media as Leonardo DaVinci's superior, Professor Hsieh looked at her fellow scientist, a mild looking man of fifties, head covered in ragged, onyx-black hair, approaching her from the closing elevator doors a small distance from them.

"It is… elegant; complex." The lady-scientist muttered quietly in reply.

"It does not seem to exhibit any abnormal function… but it may still present some difficulty integrating a live human consciousness inside this… _thing._" She gestured to the mass in front of them.

Before them, beyond the thick glass of the advanced, and cold laboratory walls, a gigantic mass of black, liquid-like Model-X7AT Experimental CHAKRA, quietly swirled around its containment unit. The giant object looked as if it was… breathing, at every ripple it made. Professor Hsieh would not admit it, but she felt as if it was staring at her.

"It must be controlled, you see." The black haired scientist said. "I wouldn't say that this is just a mere seventy-trillion dollar weapon that needs taking care of… rather it is," He shuffled to the glass, touching and seemingly reaching to the amalgam beyond it.

"Pure potential. It is something beyond simple orbital lasers and nanomachine pulse rifles." He smirked, lightly shaking his head and turning back from the CHAKRA mass.

"Is it really necessary to create such a thing?" Professor Hsieh tried to reason. "Is it really safe, ethical… sane, to even think of something like this?"

The male scientist shrugged.

"These are strange times we live in, dear professor. We do what we must, for the world, and for Imperial Neo-China… to win a war, we must go beyond the capacity of what we see as naturally humane. That is how we survived up to now." He gently placed a hand on Professor Hsieh's shoulder. She nearly flinched.

"I trust, you will find a way to put a wee human brain inside the large bio-nanomachine cluster… no?" He teased.

Professor Hsieh looked away from him. "Yes… Doctor Uchiha."

Doctor Uchiha smiled.

"That's a good girl." He shuffled back to the elevator.

"Now pardon me… I have another little thing I must attend to… so good luck there, Professor Hsieh." And he silently exited.

Professor Hsieh shook her head. 'Little… as if concentrating nearly a third of the R&D department over whatever monstrosity he is coming up with next… as if _this thing _isn't enough.'

She had heard rumors that it was a simple optical mutation experiment with some CHAKRA modifications. But after spending so much time with just the black blob in front of her, nothing seemed to make any sense anymore. She sighed.

"Well… I suppose I must return to work… for Imperial Neo-China and all." She said to herself, sitting herself down to a grand computer terminal and began to conduct her work on the large monstrosity.

And the large CHAKRA mass rippled again.

-o-

_As a wise man long ago, once said:_

"_War; War never Changes."_

_The advent of Project: CHAKRA advanced the human technical revolution thousand fold. Cancer was cured, pollution had been all but become a myth, and the whole of the natural order of the world seemed tamed under mankind's command. It all seemed as if… Humanity had indeed, ascended to Godhood._

_However, internal tensions had stirred when the countries of Asia and Africa, now known as Imperial Neo-China, began to cut ties to the countries belonging to the Western-European Alliances. Trades stopped, the exported workforce being immediately pulled back, and people seemed alienated whenever one foreign from Neo-China visited their countries. Nobody would have expected what was to come next; Neo-China declared War._

_Nobody knew the cause; nobody was ever told. It all simply, happened. Two major worldwide powers fought endlessly for years, utilizing every trump of War they can muster; mass orbital laser storms, CHAKRA-enhanced special-forces assassinations, and psychological warfare, to its maximum. The world had finally seen the Third World War._

_The two sides seemed to have entered a standstill in their struggle to dominate the other; until a strange, gigantic black creature was reported to have been seen rampaging in the Western-allied metropolitan city of New Brisbane, Australia. Reports stated that the… monster, as it was called, was immune to any attempts of CHAKRA enhanced attack, and that the creature seemed to ripple the banner of Neo-China in its single, crimson eye. The whole country-continent was literally murdered by this creature._

_The Western-European Alliance demanded surrender from Neo-China, on the condition that they would use extreme force to take their point across. The God-Emperor of Neo-China replied by raising the map of the Americas in international television and setting it on fire, and the black creature destroying two countries in the Italian sector of Europe. The Global President had decided. Five countries in the middle of Russia and Mongolia were decimated by CHAKRA-empowered InterContinental Ballistic Missiles two days later, obliterating the land into an unnatural state of destruction, unheard of, unthinkable in any way, in the whole history of Warfare._

_Their routine of death continued, until nothing of the two warring global powers remained, and the whole earth was plunged into the horrific event, known as the __**Cataclysm**__. _

_If any historian had survived to tell the tale, World War III would have been deemed the greatest genocide in the whole of total human history, death tolls reaching nearly a number so close to a hundred percent worldwide, forcing humanity to the twilight of their survival, just after their greatest act of foolishness._

_As the world burned, only the lone figure of a gigantic black creature was seen in the great, empty distance of what was once one of the white beaches of the Orient's sea-borne Pearl. It only seemed as if it was done by imagination but, the creature seemed to hum serenely in its silence; forever alone after completing its purpose of total annihilation. _

_But as fate would have it, life in a devastated world… was about to change._

-o-

_Year: 467 AFW, 37 Days after the conclusion of the Fourth Shinobi War_

Darkness.

Water droplets, cool draft, comforting stone wall.

_Drip, drip, drip._

A pair of ebony eyes quietly looked onto the front of him. He sat slack against the wall, breathed small but strongly; Uchiha Sasuke had only awoken a few days ago, chained and surrounded by seals in every direction inside where he lay as of now. For the life of it, the seals used in the prison were nothing of power that he couldn't absolutely break, nor were the chains strong enough to contain him, only being strong enough to hold the force of three stampeding pachyderm _herds_.

But he did not struggle. In his lonesome, Uchiha Sasuke sought to remain as he is.

He remembered his struggle; of the once-unlimited power the Uchiha bloodline against the natural forces of hate and furious passion that the Kyuubi and Naruto were swathed with; and of his loss against it.

His loss.

_Drip, drip, drip._

Cool wind, slight rustle, silence.

He curled up closer to himself. He had done all he could to obtain power; he possessed the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, he had sacrificed his own allies for his own ends, he had literally sold his soul to obtain vengeance; he had surpassed power beyond what so many could only dare to dream of and gambled all of what he had, into that one single moment. And he had lost.

Lie or not, he boiled in hatred. He burned fury with the fanaticism of a madman. He could have demanded another battle surpassing the magnitude of the previous bout he held with Naruto; he could have obliterated the little holding cell he was in and could have charged rampaging to the Leaf in a blaze of glory, murder the village hundred times over with his power. But…

'What would have been the point?'

And right then, Sasuke quietly remained as he is. He felt… tired.

He won the Valley of the End because Naruto hesitated to strike the killing blow, he thought of that one moment, every day since it had happened; Naruto thought of the friendships, dreams and futures that they had, and became soft. He stayed as he is because Naruto always held himself back. What would have been the outcome if the Jinchuuriki were to unleash the full brunt of his _own _hate? To fight fire... with an even deadlier fire.

'Weak… am I really destined to be… this?' He held up a hand to his face. So many callous memories, so many triumphs and even more failures; why was it that where he had failed so much, Naruto was always the flawless victor? In the battle against Gaara, Naruto won by a literal landslide, and a humongous summon. Against Kakuzu, Naruto literally shredded the once-immortal ninja into oblivion. And even to the nigh-impossible to defeat Pein, Naruto had again proved it all to be wrong. He had won every battle, overcame every obstacle, and became so much because of it.

And who was he? The deadlast, the pariah, the Jailor of the Kyuubi… the greatest Hokage who will ever live. The Greatest Ninja alive.

And himself? A prisoner to fate. Always the one in the shadow of the great one. To be made as the underdog… was this what Naruto felt when they were young?

"Hn." Sasuke chuckled silently. It seemed so ironic, it had practically become laughable even to himself.

So tired, Sasuke felt. He couldn't care any less now. Today, he would just dream.

-o-

_The next day,_

Rustle, wind, comfortable, cough.

Sunlight greeted the Avenger's eyes, and he greeted back. It felt… nice, today. Sasuke strangely felt… happy. He spotted something a few distances in front of him, something the day before, was certainly not there. And yet right now… it was simply there.

A book. Leather-bound, old but very neat. A few scratches here and there… strangely familiar.

Retrieving it for a closer look, Sasuke would not have possibly believed what he held in his hands, actually was. For a long time before, everyone had thought this book had been burned the day the Uchiha Massacre was held.

This… this is Itachi's diary.

Sasuke scanned the first few parts of the diary; they detailed the times he and his brother together, in much more happier times.

…_perhaps tomorrow will be a day I can tutor Sasuke in his projectile improvement. How I wish these so-called responsibilities did not weigh me down. I have broken so many promises one too many times… And looking at a crestfallen child's face, more so my own little brother, even I would feel, how one would say, an ass of myself. Forgive me if they drag me off again, Sasuke._

Sasuke turned another few pages. Though he could not contain the irresistible smile he turned up when he read that line.

'This… it's his handwriting.' Pristine, perfect… every curve, every quirk in every letter. It was trademark of Itachi.

_They say honor comes before all else. I believe, the law must always be upheld; no matter who the person is behind any heinous act… even if it were your own family. I will not have an uprising occur in my name. I would rather be dead in honor, rather than live in shame. However… innocence is something I will not have broken, in the stead of those who do not deserve to break it. Sasuke will not be blamed for the faults of pretentious adults. Mother, forgive me… but stand in my way, and I will not spare you. And Sasuke… forgive me as well. If I could possess all the power in the world, it would have been all for you not to hate me. Forgive me._

More pages flipped by.

_Power is something that simply cannot disappear in this world. It is the necessary evil we must all need to coexist with… the thought of it drives me furious. Fate is the most cruel of mistresses; it is only a matter of time when I must account for all the crimes, and atrocities I committed, and face the judgment from whoever shall deal it to me. I can only hope, that Sasuke would not follow the path I have chosen… but I believe, that is another of the foolishness that I have commited._

_Forgive me, Sasuke._

-o-

Nearly a whole day had passed. Sasuke re-read so many parts of the diary times-over, whether out of reliving happier memories, or piecing together broken ones; Itachi was indeed, the most enigmatic person he would ever know in his entire life. In his life, he had always been forced to become things he would not be proud to call himself. Murderer, arsonist, kidnapper… so many labels were attached to the name Uchiha Itachi. And yet, nobody truly understood who he was.

Sasuke had neared the last few entries of the diary. It was dated… on the day Itachi died. The day they did battle… and his hollow victory.

_Perhaps, today shall be the day I will receive my peace. Perhaps, now I shall finally see what they say is… the other side of this fence we call life. _

_Strange… truly strange, humanity. _

_Truthfully, I do not have anything else to say here. Only that my life was full of so many regrets, so much of nothing and yet too little of everything… It made me so angry that even as so much of who I am, the so-called Great Uchiha Itachi, I could not change the fates that befell the many that died by my hand._

_How I wish that my family did not seek their power through death._

_How I wish that being a ninja was not about murder… but about discovering ourselves to become beyond what it means to be human, and to become something more… for something better._

_Sasuke; if ever you shall come across this note, then again, I ask… forgive me, for everything I have put you through. Forgive me for not giving you the life you so desired, for not being the big brother that I should have rightly been, for introducing you to this cold, cruel world of ninja… and not being there to guide your hand._

_I am sorry, my dear little brother… for everything._

_I understand if you choose to hate me, it is deserving of you; for you were the one who had been the most hurt, in the whole cycle of hatred Konoha, the Clan, everybody who sought power for their own ends. And I will understand if you choose to exact vengeance to they, who have done you so wrongly. It is all wholly up to you, as to what path you choose, I shall have no qualm._

_But as your brother, please hear me out when I say…_

_**Live, Sasuke. **_

_Live for life, live for love, live for Peace. _

_I have lived long enough to see the horrors of this world; so much death, so much blood lost for the promise of power; I have seen how countries rose, and fall, their people dying to give them their glory and their dirty money . My brother, never believe that you are tied to fate. Never believe that you cannot change the reality we all suffer from. You possess more power than Naruto, Orochimaru, or Madara ever did. You have freedom; your capability is infinite, you can become whoever you want to be, at your own whim. _

_You have a freedom that I never had when I lived as the heir to our family. I could not break myself from the code of the Hidden Village, the demands of our clan, or the many beings who sought to use you as a bargaining chip; I was always tied to the ground, and I could never have abandoned you to any of them, simply for my own selfish whim._

_But now, I am sure. After I die by your hand, there I am sure that you have the power to challenge fate; to break free from the cycle of hatred, chaining the whole of our cold, uncaring world in bondage. I believe in you Sasuke, and for that I want you to love, I want you to be happy, and I want you to live._

_Your big brother, now and always,_

_Uchiha Itachi._

_P.S._

_Never be ashamed of who you are. Become who you want to be, and become the best in it. I know you will make me proud, no matter what._

Sasuke sat dumbfounded at his brother's written revelation. For a long time, he sat unmoving against the cool, stone wall, resting the journal beside him and watching the sunlight play around in the shadows of his prison.

Fate. The word seem to rung bells inside Sasuke's head. What was it? What is he really destined to do, what was his ultimate purpose for living? To be the Avenger? To be the Lost Heir of the Uchiha, to Konoha? Or was he fated to battle Naruto in an eternal struggle of clashing ideologies and dreams? Was he ever fated to even live like… this?

Live. Itachi said, to live and be happy.

What was happiness?

"What… is happiness…?" Sasuke murmured to himself.

'_What is happiness?'_

If Sasuke had awoken earlier than he had earlier that day, he would have noticed a familiar, plump red toad placing the diary in front of him, and promptly disappearing in a whorl of smoke.

-o-

_Year: 467 AFW, 39 Days after the conclusion of the Fourth Shinobi War, 10 Days after Uchiha Sasuke's incarceration._

"What… the _Hell _happened here…?" Tsunade growled. Her guard team and entourage could barely believe it themselves.

The maximum-level, mountain prison in front of them; the ultra-high level seals no sane man could dispel that used to surround the whole mountain top, and tempered chakra-steel enough to withstand even an unhinged blow from the Lady Hokage, all blasted aside as if they were paper! The mountainside was absolutely… obliterated, rocks and boulders littering the country-side were the common sight, and the ground absolutely vibrated with traces of high-level Lightning Chakra. Thankfully, yet strangely, the twenty Jounin guards stationed around the prison were just rendered unconscious.

"Well… you could've sorta expected this," Kakashi remarked offhandedly. Tsunade glared the 'shut-up-smartass look' at the aloof ninja.

Naruto, who had been wandering on what used to be the cell of Uchiha Sasuke, found a familiar, leather-bound journal. He smiled weakly. He flipped the pages, trying to find any hint of use, and pausing to look at a previously unmarked page in the book. It seeks to have been written only recently, messily scrawled with what smells like blood.

'Finding Happiness.'

He found himself surprised at the little message, and quietly wished him luck. Naruto closed his eyes, and gently tucked the book away inside his side-bag, returning to the frantic Godaime and his eternally lazy teacher. He'd probably have another unbelievable story to tell to Konohamaru, but he'd doubt the young Genin would _not _believe anything after the storm of recent events.

'It's a weird life.' Naruto thought wistfully. Whatever path Sasuke would probably choose, if ever he desires battle once more, he'll be there. Naruto sworn himself as the protector of the Leaf a long time ago, and he will stand by that, not as the Jailor of the Kyuubi, or the next, and greatest Hokage who will ever live… but as Sasuke's friend.

-o-

_Year: 467 AFW, somewhere in Wave Country._

"_The ninja world is on the manhunt for Double S-Rank Missing Ninja, Uchiha Sasuke who is said to be on the run after his escape from an undisclosed, maximum-security isolation prison, only a week after his initial incarceration. Hidden Cloud's own Raikage criticized the Hidden Leaf's complacency on their criminals, claiming they are and I quote: 'Too squeamish for their own good.' And now, on other news…"_

The cook shook her head worriedly, and switched the radio to some music instead. "Oh my… to think a criminal like Uchiha Sasuke running around like that," She turned to her only customer, who was quietly enjoying his order of beef ramen and side dish of sliced tomatoes. "It's scary isn't it, you know considering so much messes he done in the war…"

Her customer nodded, and sipped a little ramen broth.

"Oh, I do hope they catch him soon; who knows what else that Sasuke would do!" The lady chef squirmed uncomfortably. She suddenly glanced at her customer, and noticed the small smile as he munched on a slice of tomato. She laughed embarrassedly. The customer looked up.

"I don't think there's much to worry." And sipped some more ramen broth.

She tilted her head slightly. "Why do you say that?"

He sighed contentedly, and set his utensils in the now empty ramen bowl.

"There are a lot of good ninjas out there. I think that Sasuke guy'll be caught in no time."

She laughed. "Yeah, right!"

She cleaned up the dishes and set them into the diner sink. "So I hear you're new in town stranger, what'll you be doing around this small backwater town?" She inquired politely.

He smiled, and relaxed to face the Great Naruto Bridge a distance away from the diner. It's a beautiful world he noticed. Maybe this wasn't a bad idea after all…

"Trying to find Happiness."

-o-

_End of Act 1_

-o-

Author's Notes: I think, I'ma make this reach three or some chapters. If you'll look closely at the next chapter, you'll see there are certain themes addressed in each act. Then again, I think it's a bit obviously put, then again… haha whatever works.


	2. Act 2: Grief

-o-

"_Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman—a rope over an abyss ... what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end."_

_**Friedrich Nietzsche**_

-o-

_The air felt stiff. Stifling._

_A rumble off in the distance rippled the shallow waters of the dark, gigantic chamber. The walls seemed to shake at the reverberation, and an echo spoke to no one through the darkness. The waters calmed, and all was silent again._

_Then there was crying. Soft, and as stifled as the air seemed to choke. It was the sharpest noise in the dead silence of the sewer-like chambers' dark expanse. Slowly, it stopped. There was rumbling again._

_A red, glowing shape appeared from the cage, just across the sewer water and the cold, dank walls. It breathed a sulfur-like stench and an ungodly heat, and then he growled slightly. The red shape settled to rest on the lightly boiling waters, and then seemed to return to what used to have been its sleep._

_And then, Naruto's eyes opened..._

-o-

_Year: 522 AFW, 60__th__ Annual Celebration of the last Shinobi World War._

Naruto's eyes opened to the empty ceiling. They ached; his whole body ached. The incessant ringing of the alarm clock beside his bed, a charming gift from Haruno Sakura back when they were young and so was ruled out of being crushed to a million pieces just to attain silence, did not help with his ailment, and met with a gentle tap to the silence button from the now awakened Naruto.

He shuffled to his bathroom and rested a hand to the wall. The mirror seemed to mistake itself from what Naruto saw. He was supposedly the oldest living, walking ninja in the whole village, and yet the mirror shown a young man of practically his teens, staring a hole into himself, admonishing the ragged, messy blonde locks and unbrushed teeth with the scrutiny of a rusty old… well, old man.

It was his daily routine, for nearly fifty years.

He snorted. First the alarm clock shook him awake, and then the radio began to sing… weird fad songs young shinobi these days are addicted to. Some crazy girl band from Hidden Sand called Girl-Ninja's Generation. He didn't wonder where everyone comes up with all that nonsense. At least it was catchy, he thought, as Naruto brushed his teeth to the bubbly and dare he admit it, slightly addictive tune.

_~Oh Oh Oh, Opparul saranghae, Ah Ah Ah Ah, mani mani hae~_

-o-

"General!" A cadre of Jounin eagerly saluted.

Naruto raised a bored hand and calmed them down. "That was a long time ago… I'm just a regular ninja now, so please relieve yourselves with the formality."

"But still! You were our leader in the Defense of Tiger Alps, and it is only fitting that we show respect!" A wide-eyed female Hyuuga jounin, generations much younger than he is and certainly more pushy than the Hyuuga in his generation, protested in awe. Naruto just shrugged, either not noticing or not minding the rather shortened personal distance between the two.

"There's a ceremony we all have to go to… come on now." Naruto chided.

"Yes sir!" The jounins saluted again, and left with an enthusiasm they all vowed to show only to their venerated former-leader. A light chuckle from behind him prompted a glance from Naruto. An elderly, but beautiful Hyuuga emanating an aura of confidence and of unquestionable power, stood by just near where Naruto was. She dressed in the robes stylistic of the Main Family, but wore the steel-rimmed gloves of the ANBU underneath her prim and proper attire. Her long, ebony and platinum mixed hair cascaded down, smoother than the finest silk, and nearly shone with a silvery glow.

"It really is cute to see those kids like that." She remarked. "You know, they look up to you more than they do to their parents."

Naruto bowed. "Lady Hokage."

She waved it off. "You make me sound even older with that. Whatever happened to what you used to call me… you know, Hanabi-chan."

Naruto nodded. "Lady Hanabi."

The equally-venerable Hanabi smiled. "Hmph, now _you _cut with the formalities, Uzumaki-_sama_." She strode over to Naruto, and gently took the whiskered cheeks of the unflinching shinobi to her lightly wrinkled, yet utterly delicate hands. She ran a finger to the whiskers, to his nose and to his lips. She can't help but be fixated at the overflowing youth, and the strength from within that Naruto exuded.

"Look at you," Hanabi remarked airily. "More than fifty years I've known you, you still look as handsome as I remember you back then…"

Naruto slightly tilted his head. "You're more beautiful than you have ever been, as you are now my Lady." He replied, and lightly returning the Hokage's hands back to her.

"Hmph! And you still certainly know how to flatter a woman." Hanabi laughed. She looked at him with some strange, misplaced pride, and then resigned herself into a sigh and crossing her arms in thought, resting her head on an upturned arm.

"I will be choosing a successor soon… the legendary 'Lifegiver''s granddaughter. From your counsel… what do you think of her?" Hanabi said offhandedly, the legendary 'Lifegiver' in question, referring to Haruno Sakura.

For the countless seemingly miraculous resuscitation operations she conducted in the many wars that followed after the Fourth Shinobi World War. From healing a perforated heart to defibrillating the whole human nervous system, only resurrection seemed to be the only thing missing in her resume of countless accomplishments. She died peacefully in her sleep, and passing on the incredible skill of preserving life to her granddaughter, Haruno Misaki, who had already made a name for herself as an indomitable kunoichi with a track record of accomplishments that could easily have rivaled even the great Tsunade, and Sakura herself.

"She'll do a good job." Naruto remarked, and began to shuffle away. Hanabi placed a hand on his shoulder, and held him gently in place.

"Tell me first…" Hanabi quietly intoned. "Why… why did you even pass this on? To Sarutobi-kun… and to me when you could have kept the job yourself? I mean, it was your whole dream isn't it, to be the greatest Hokage who ever lived?"

Naruto glanced back to her. The look in his eyes did not tell any subtleties even a high-level jounin would notice. But Hanabi, in all her years as a close friend, and experience as one of the greatest ninja of her time, she knew of the seemingly irritated look she gave her.

"Things change… Lady Hanabi." He bowed slightly out of respect, and proceeded to his walk, leaving the Hokage in her lonesome.

Hanabi sighed. Perhaps it was the years that left him behind, or the pain of losing so many of your loved ones to something you cannot even fight to bargain with, she could have said either way and she may have ended correct. Time, as they say, is indeed the most powerful adversary there is, she knew this too well herself.

"Know that you are not alone, Naruto-kun…" Hanabi muttered quietly to herself. How she wished she knew more… understood more, about the blonde enigma. But alas, time is something she too, will have to face as the last of her generation. Hanabi then walked herself to the Hokage Mountain as she is the one to make the speech on the day's celebration; on commemorating the Hidden Leaf's victory in the greatest, most deadly war they had ever triumphed, the Fourth Shinobi War.

-o-

"_It is… elegant."_

_Naruto looked at her in confusion. Sakura shook her head gently, holding his hand to hers and intricately peering at every line, every quirk and every print on the Jinchuuriki's hand. She felt sadness for the unforeseen fate in stall for her beloved and closest friend, and perhaps a sliver of hope for the practically limitless possibilities he can possibly fulfill in his… state of being. It was not every day that you would find out there was the possibility you would leave behind everyone you had ever loved in your life, and it was not even one cause that would be begotten by violence… and then become something akin only to those the common and the elite alike can only dream of._

"_I don't know how to say it. It's like your whole body… turned into something else entirely; beyond human." Sakura explained. Her hold tightened on his hand. "It could have been a side effect of the binding process used to contain the Kyuubi inside of you; maybe its chakra mutated yours when… the Yondaime, opened its chakra pool into your own."_

_Naruto couldn't answer. For more than the twenty years they've known each other, he didn't know what to say to his longtime teammate. He could only stare at the two soulful, hazel-green eyes that looked up to his own, icy blues… and the hint of crimson around it._

_She smiled weakly. "I stand by what I said years ago." Sakura stroked a stray hair from Naruto's face. When they first met, Sakura couldn't think of any other label for Naruto than a pompous, arrogant, and loudmouthed gnat. As she stood at the present, she could only see the legacy of every great shinobi the Hidden Leaf had ever conceived. Greater than the Sandaime, the Yondaime, even the Sannin and anyone else you would ever come forth. Uzumaki Naruto, would live to be the greatest warrior the world will ever see; it was today that she would again acknowledge that fact once again, as proudly as she had taken her title as one of the 'Konoha Immortal Twelve', heroes of the Fourth War who had saved countless lives and those who defended their country to the last of their impassioned breaths, the most out of all the ninja in their esteemed village. _

"_Here's looking at you, kid." She sighed, chuckling lightly and hugging him like she had never had before. Warm, passionate; she didn't want to let him go. "You're a good person Naruto; never forget that. You __**will **__do great things throughout your life, and know that I will always be there for you, through thick and thin..."_

"_You'll be the greatest Hokage as you have always been, and I'll stand by you, for as long as I can." Sakura leaned in, and kissed him lightly on the forehead. A stray tear rolled down her cheek, and she buried her face deeper into Naruto's jounin vest._

_Naruto couldn't find an appropriate reply to the strange turn of events; what would it mean now that he knew he couldn't possibly know what the taste of death would be like, what the mystery of the afterlife holds, and the endless days he would face after knowing only he can tread through times nobody else that he knew, could ever go with him, guide him through, or even be there for him to run back to when he would be lost. He didn't want to admit it, but deep inside he began to resent his father for this. _

_Deep inside Sakura's own thoughts, she did not want to trouble him anymore with the fact that this was not the end of his transformation. His chakra pulsated, unlike any other that she had sensed in her life as the greatest medic nin alive; and she had lived long enough to see the monstrosities the likes of Madara, Orochimaru, had perverted chakra into becoming. This was something completely beyond their league, and she didn't want to pain her time-lost friend anymore than he already is… and already will become._

'_Something else, huh…?' Naruto barely thought out, as he held on tighter to the lightly sobbing Sakura._

-o-

Spring. It was windy; not too hot, not too cold.

'My kind of season.' One friend once said that often every time they would come across each other. Nara Shikamaru, sixty-three. Died before his wife, Nara Temari, who died at seventy. They were perhaps the most peaceful people Naruto had ever had the honor of living with through the years, a far cry from the lazy, uninspired genius and the hot-blooded desert rose he had known them when they were young. They left behind two children and eight grand children.

Naruto walked over the many graves of Konoha's revered ninja in somber muteness. There lay most of his friends, loved ones, teachers… everyone.

He looked to his right, and met the grave of the great Aburame Shino; war hero and family man, died with a grin on his face as he was the one who put Hoshigaki Kisame to a permanent grave during the Sound-Grass Uprising. Lived on by twelve grand children, loved in life and honored in death.

Three meters southwest, a small candle burned meekly beside a modest bouquet of flowers. Komaki-Inuzuka 'Tenten' Shiraki, a weapons specialist unlike any other, holding the honor of single-handedly bringing down an entire platoon of Falls ninja back in the Defense of Tiger Alps with only her scroll of weapons, and the trees to aid her. She bore many children, and became a writer in her old age. An enigma in her own right, her husband Inuzuka Kiba was the only one who understood how her train of thought functioned.

Underneath a cherry blossom tree, far from the entrance but tidily nestled away into a peaceful escape, was his closest band of friends. Haruno Sakura, Umino Iruka, and Hatake Kakashi. A litter of flowers fresh from the Yamanaka Flower Shop dotted the three graves, and some used, burned-out candles from Sakura's grandchildren littered the glassy tombstone on her spot. A katana dirtied by the elements was thrust in the ground from Iruka's grave; a commemoration from his wife, Uzuki-Umino Yuugao for the happiness he had never failed to give to her, through good times and bad. Kakashi's grave was simple, and undecorated, though his epitaph read expletives and exceedingly erotic passages from his favorite reading materials. Naruto couldn't help but chuckle.

A little farther off, hidden in the trees and showing greater wear compared to the other rests, was an unmarked grave. Only the former Team Seven knew to whom that grave should have belonged to, and it only existed there by Naruto's personal use of his power as the Hokage of that time. Nobody knew if he had still lived, or was long dead after his escape from imprisonment.

Everywhere he looked, Naruto was surrounded by the dead. Friends, foster family, comrades… Nobody in his generation remained. Only Hyuuga Hanabi, the ninth Hokage and the most powerful, publicly-known ninja in the Five Elemental Countries, remained as a fragment of the countless loved ones he knew from his youth.

His stomach tightened.

He would never admit it, but Naruto indeed, loved the Lady Hokage unlike he had loved anyone ever before. She was the only remaining precious person he ever cared to stay with, ever since the passing of his team, his own Genins, and the few remaining allies he had shared lives, missions and dreams with. His fear, of her disappearing, of following the paths everybody else had taken before her… then what else would be there to remain for him? He shook his head. It all felt too familiar to him.

The cool spring wind blew down gently again, to the vast field of headstones and clean-cut grass. Naruto suddenly turned his head to his left.

Far away from him, an exceedingly elderly man had lay down a beautiful bouquet of flowers on a grave. He was what Naruto constantly envisioned to what he could have been if he had not been saddled with his... so-called gift. A gentlemanly fellow dressed in atypical civilian clothing belonging to nobles, locks of hair dominated by so much silver and perhaps, a hint of black here and there. He had a cane on one hand, yet it only served to just being a decoration on his delicate grasp. He stood straight and elegantly, his bearded and aged face looking down serenely on the grave in front of him.

Naruto envied him.

A light gust of wind blew around the grass on the feet of the old gentleman. He closed his eyes for a moment, and looked up. The sky was so bright; springtime was quite a time, he thought. Maybe a melon with juice by the river or a nice bowl of fried noodles in a festival. He smiled.

"Is there… anything I can help you with?" He said suddenly.

It was only seconds ago that the lot beside him stood empty. A Jounin, garbed in the cape of the elite and simply radiated of unspeakable, unnatural power, now stood beside him.

"…Do you miss them?" Naruto muttered, his face turned away from the man and staring right at the grave beside the one the gentleman was visiting.

He smiled. "Yes... There are times that I wish I can relive time and time again." The gentleman replied.

"It is natural, I suppose. Perhaps, we just wish to right all our wrongs and imagine the perfect life we could have lived with them. Or… maybe we just wish to relive memories that we can never encounter again. Whimsical, idealistic fantasies…" He sighed thoughtfully.

Naruto kept silent. He looked at the grave in front of him; Codename: Sai… A good man, polite and severely, though humorously inept in social interaction; died of disease from the last Hidden-Mist missing-ninja hunt. He was aged thirty-six. Left behind one child… Favorite food… favorite hobby… Naruto could go on and write down his whole slum book if it was within his whim, but he digressed.

"… If you could, would you?" Naruto asked again, looking at the old man.

He shook his head. Naruto crooked his.

"I believe, that the future belongs to the future. The past is what it is… the past. And the present, well…" He chuckled. Naruto simply looked at him.

"The present is what we make of it. Whether we live or die, the present should be a time where you become the best of yourself... and become the best for others." The gentleman remarked. Naruto looked down again, perhaps albeit disappointed in the answer. The old man began to walk away.

"After all, it is _you_ who had me to, oh you know… 'Find Happiness.'" The old gentleman laughed melodically.

Naruto's mind thought blank, and his eyes widened a second later. But by the time he realized it, the only glimpse he caught from beside him, was the empty and swaying grass of the cemetery, and the bright springtime sun, now beginning to set itself to late afternoon. He shuffled to the grave the old gentleman had placed the flowers to, and read the headstone's name out of his already pinching curiosity.

_Uchiha Itachi_

_Beloved Brother and Son_

_Hero of Konoha_

_Your name will live on in highest honor_

Strange, Naruto thought.

The grave that was supposedly on this spot, used to be empty.

He shook his head, letting it be and began returning home for whatever it is the next day would bring.

"So that's how it is to you…" Naruto muttering soft nothings to himself and shuffling his feet back to town.

-o-

_Alone._

"_Anyone… is there anybody…?"_

_No. You are all alone._

'_Kakashi-sensei?'_

…

' _Sakura-chan?'_

_Nobody._

' _Iruka-sensei…?'_

_Alone._

'_Alone, huh…'_

_Alone. _

"_I'm… alone." Naruto whispered. He let himself fall to the ground and curled himself up, and then faded to nothingness. A tear was left behind in the emptiness, and then it too was gone._

_Far off, someone else cried. It curled itself up, and let itself fade away._

-o-

Thunder boomed the skies. The rain seemed unrelenting. The winds howled quietly; but whoever was there would have felt the blood in their veins freeze.

But it was he, who did not feel them. Naruto stood in vigilance against the terrible elements.

The day had come. He still could not grasp it. But yet his eyes told truth like no other could. He would only be fooling himself if he tried to reason it as illusions or dreams.

The Ninth Hokage, Hyuuga Hanabi. She too is gone now. Her grave stood the most beautiful of all; a tall pillar headstone of glassy onyx, carved with an artisan's grace and skill, and made beautifully as the Hokage herself was, being adorned in gold and whitesteel engravings of her images and of the little somethings she so loved in life. Nothing like it ever existed, anywhere else.

And still, Naruto felt empty. A gift like no other to his most loved one, true it was. And yet… nobody was there to accept it.

Thunder roared again, and the storm raged on. Naruto ran a finger on the grave, and rested a hand on it. Neither hunger nor weariness seemed to register to his mind, nor did the biting cold or the endless rain that wracked chaos into the night air bothered him. Relatives tried to ease the blonde ninja, but met only with an empty response, and a deep feeling in their gut telling them not to disturb him any further. Because only her… as he stands dreaming, he dreamed only of her.

Two weeks had gone by, and then Naruto had awakened. He collapsed on the grave, and cried.

-o-

_Darkness. It felt so… familiar. _

_He loathed it. _

_Two gigantic steel prison doors were present just a few paces from him. It had been long ago when he broke the seal and inherited the limitless power contained from within; the bars were rusted, and the paper that had kept the crack of the door closed, was long gone. _

_The waters were eerily still. The usual, hoarse and rough breathing he always heard when he converged in __**his **__prison was absent. It too, had been a long time when he paid __**him **_a visit. _Not since the battle he had unleashed both their full powers against a long forgotten foe… and nearly lost their lives battling that moment of vainglorious danger._

_He closed in, and stepped beyond the old gates. There was nothing here. From beyond the cold darkness, even with his masterfully honed senses, he could only barely see the small figure curled in around the corner of the gigantic prison. He heard soft crying; he heard it so many times before, but this was the only time he had realized that for once in his so many dreams, that what crying he heard was not his._

_He neared it again… It scuffled closer to itself, and curled up tighter. _

_He froze. _

_It was __**human**__._

-o-

"General!" Salutes occurred around him.

Naruto paid no attention, and continued to dot his sights to the great grassy expanse beyond him; the tides of war were roaming around their doorsteps again, and he would honor his promise as a soldier to protect the motherland. That was what other people would assume to be his purpose for participating into a war they know he would singlehandedly obliterate to back to the dust of political misquotation and so-called mistakes. But to himself, he only participated in it on a whim. That he would find an answer to a question he himself could not even understand.

"General! Their numbers are three to one against our group. What are your commands, sir?" A jounin inquired hesitantly.

Naruto continued to look to the horizon before him. It was spring, and the flowers were in bloom again. He thought of the cool air and the temperate sun of the mid-June season, just as an old friend did whenever they would meet at their usual hangout at their favorite ramen stand… as he promptly bolted into lightning and enemy forces started flying around, exploding Rasengans and multiple Fire Dragon Releases engineered by Shadow Clones littering the warzone before the eyes of the dumbfounded Konoha nin still stuck at camp.

The war lasted only two minutes. Naruto returned home, hailed a 'Divine Ninja Wargod' yet again by young jounin and chuunin addicted to too much cartoons; the things they come up with these days, he thought… and he brushed it off. Nothing had changed, and that familiar emptiness began to emanate inside him again, as he still had no answer.

It was springtime, yes. And it didn't feel like what it used to.

-o-

_She smiled, and so did he. It was so… warm. He cursed the days lost that he did not know her; but he digressed. She was here, for just a fleeting moment he knew that, and so did she. But it was still, perhaps without a doubt, the happiest time in all his life._

"_You are never alone Naruto." Kushina said softly. She hugged him tightly and he sank into her embrace. It just felt… right. _

"_After you leave this realm, you will not see me again." She said, gently stroking a stray hair from her son's face. For a mother who never knew her child, only watching him grow from afar… watching him suffer and cry those restless nights without the love of a parent to guide him through, she too shared the sentiment of staying in the white, empty realm from where they stood._

"_But I will live on; the power of the Kyuubi will forever become one with yours… and so will mine." Kushina smiled, holding back her tears as Naruto just felt her warmth come over him… for the very last time, he thought… no, knew._

_He felt he could not stand it._

"_My soul… your father's too, will live on through you." Kushina kissed her beloved child in the forehead; so much like how she did those short hours her bundle of joy was born, and so much like how she addressed her beloved husband before he sealed themselves into Naruto, forever to be the living sanctuary for their son. She finally surrendered, and sobbed. It was a cruel a fate that it was her child who would bear an eternity of mankind's sins into himself; to seal the power only a noble soul could contain. The gods she thought, were perhaps more cruel than they appear to be._

"_Naruto… for me, for your father; I want you to live…!" Kushina smiled, and faded to nothingness._

_The warmth was gone, and Naruto felt only the flame; the burning, coursing power of the Kyuubi becoming one with his. He felt power overwhelming; the undeniable, and untainted bloodthirsty, righteous strength he could only taste when before, he could only ask and beg for a sliver of the fox's power. Now he wielded it like another of his kunai; it was now his and his alone… _

_And it became one of those times Naruto did not want to be Hokage, nor did he want the vast, nigh-unlimited power he clamored for as a child. _

_For in this time, the only thing he wanted more in the whole world, heart crying out… was to be home._

-o-

Naruto looked up. Beyond the endless sky, of the clouds and the bright sun, he breathed and took the sight in. In front of him stood Fire Country's tallest mountain, stretching beyond heights no mortal could climb. In the three hundred years after the founding of Konoha, arguably the greatest ninja village still standing amidst the changing times, only two people had succeeded in the climb to the top of the mount in the whole history of all ninja. Lee and Gai still held that honor uncontested, even a generation after they had done the amazing feat.

Naruto stood unmoving for a while. The forest surrounding the foot of the mountain whispered quiet winds and bought a comforting feeling to the lone ninja. The trees rustled and the grass swayed, no animal dared to disturb the atmospheric silence as the jinchuuriki closed his eyes. He bent one knee down, and felt chakra ripple in the tight contortions of his leg muscles. And with a small grunt, Naruto jumped up. A shrill crackle of wind sounded off, the trees roared and shook, and the clouds surrounding the peak of the great mountain ran wildly with the contour of his body as he landed softly on the tallest crevice his feet could first touch. With a single leap, Naruto had managed to travel the distance Lee and Gai had to run through with their own chakras blazing, when they trekked nearly thirty thousand feet up the mountain...

Naruto smiled a little. He imagined how Lee or Gai-sensei would have admonished him for a cheap climb by jutsu, rocketing yourself into the air like that and all, saying how the youth of one such as he should not go into the dishonor of cheating and emulating Kakashi…

'Would have'. Naruto thought, but shook his head away of it. Now was not the time to create more depressing pasts and uncertain future specs; he swore quits to it already, and he was getting tired of having it cling again and again like an incessant leech. The past has come and gone, and he had only eternity as his companion, from now on to the improbable and unpredictable future.

The morning sun seemed to shine more brighter as to where he stayed, perched onto rock and unmoving as he was. It was rare he noticed; the sun was considerably gentler here. No ray seared him, and no light blinded him compared to how he would look up from the earth at times. It seemed as if, the sun _wanted _to let Naruto see it this way; Naruto himself, seemingly wanted to live just to look forward to this certain morning; of the indigo tinged morning clouds and the fleets of birds rushing around the peak, and the even rarer peace he felt last only so long ago. For a long time, Naruto thought and pondered. Somewhere out there he thought, was where his answer awaited; and so will the question he long sought after for all his life.

Purpose, he smiled. Out there, beyond the disturbing normality the life of war and violence he had become so accustomed to, lay the joy that left him so long ago the day Hanabi passed away. Before _they _all passed away. For a moment, the night seemed to wish itself together with the calm indigo clouds and the auburn skyline mingled with the calm setting sun, the wind blowing gently and whistling across the countless rocky peaks around where Naruto perched.

True it was that he swore, as a soldier and as the Jailor of the Kyuubi, to forever protect the Village of Konoha from any threat that would arise; and he had fulfilled all that, one too many times before. He had stopped many a war, oftentimes singlehandedly, be it with democracy and diplomacy, or be it with fists and Rasengans. Some would have called him selfish, but he didn't care. Today was a new day, a beautiful one even. It was one of those days Naruto saw the beauty around him, something he had long forgotten as he grew into the warmachine he was as he is today, something that wholly went against everything all his loved ones taught him to do, what they spent their whole lives just to get one small message across; To Live.

For some reason, Naruto felt excited at the whole prospect. Standing up, saying a small goodbye to Konoha, he somersaulted into the sky and dived out into the open forest below.

-o-

Authors Notes: Talk about major delay. You can blame homework and school responsibilities for that, hahaha. But then again, when you're working to a bright future, you can't afford to make any mistakes, I say.

Just a few minor setbacks, is all.


End file.
